Phony General? (now with added Phony Goodness)
Someone sent me this picture of a fellow he sees frequently around a local ROTC detachment. Our tipster says he believes the guy served in some capacity in the military but doubts his claims that he did 3 tours at SOCOM or that he’s a Major General.
Me? I’m just enjoying the military goodness of the pictures;
Like you are, I wondered what the glob of patches on his right shoulder are so I blew the picture up a bit;
For those of you who might not know, the patch on your right shoulder is supposed to be one of the units that you served in during combat. He’s added a Ranger tab and a Special Forces tab – which is completely unauthorized. Anyone who has ever worn the stuff for real knows which shoulder it goes on.
Here’s what he’s wearing over his left breast;
Yeah, the Combat Infantry Badge is a “Group 1” badge which means it goes over the Aviator Wings, a “Group 3” badge. It’s right in the AR 670-1 as an example;
Again, anyone who ever was awarded the CIB knows why it goes above everything else. It’s an exclusive club – one to which the three bloggers here all belong and we get reallly mad at people who wear them and haven’t earned them – ask Geof Millard. I don’t know where every single medal goes, but I know how to wear my own uniform.
I know that a general wearing a Good Conduct Medal is rare – he could have some enlisted time (officers don’t get the GCM because officers are supposed to be good all of the time without a medal) but that’s a long way to travel from three years of enlisted time (a GCM is awarded for three years of not stepping on your junk) to a two-star general. I also noticed that his Distinguished Flying Cross is placed higher than his Silver Star and his Legion of Merit is supposed to be higher than his Bronze Star.
You guys can pick over the medals in the comments if you want. Here’s a link to a .pdf Army Regulations 670-1 Wear and Appearance. And here’s a link to medals. Knock yourself out. I noticed a few other discrepancies – but I’m going blind look at all of this guy’s stuff.
I remember when I taught ROTC at the University of Vermont in the late 80s, uncles and parents would show up in a lot of weird shit at graduation but this guy takes the cake.
I forgot to ask; Is that a really flat beret on his head?
Added: Our tipster sent along a picture of the general’s left side – I’m glad he balanced out the long tab and short tab on both sleeves;
Is that crooked-ass tie part of a general’s uniform, too?
Expect updated posts on this fellow.
Category: Phony soldiers
While you’re correct in noting the misplacement of his various badges and patches, it is worth mentioning that general officers are authorized to wear whatever they want however they want. I’m not saying he’s legit, and I doubt he is for the reasons you point out. Most generals use that uniform freedom to get their name embroidered in a jacket or some other small change and not to just randomly throw shit on their uniforms with no rhyme or reason. Just a data point for ya!
Jonn wrote: Yeah, people always tell me that but I’ve never seen a line in the 670-1 that says generals get to wear whatever they want wherever they want. Every professional soldier I’ve ever met did it the right way. Every time. And you’re assuming he’s a real general. Maybe my tipster will send me this guy’s full name and what town he lives in and I’ll get his DD214 and lay it to rest. In the interim, it’s good military comedy.
Rut Roh….
Now, I may only be a lowly Reserve bubba who hates wearing dress uniforms, but the first thing I picked up on was the tab situation on his right sleeve. He is a fraud. He isn’t wearing any of the green Leadership Tabs on his epaulettes. I bet he doesn’t even have the Officer Bloodstripe on his trousers. The man doesn’t even have the USSOCOM backing (the name for it escapes me) for his Jump Wings. I work at a Division level HHC, our CG never has uniform issues, mostly because he has, IMO, the best CSM in the Reserve to advise him. No General Officer would be caught in public looking like a soup sandwich without his or her CSM giving their uniform the onceover. I say that he is a phony.
Is there a wreath around that musket? Or, is it an Expert Infantryman’s Badge, in which case, how can he have been both Ranger and SF in combat and have an EIB rather than the warrior’s CIB?
FOUR awards of the Presidential Unit Citation? Really?
Wait. Should the Army’s Presidential Unit Citation be ranked LOWER than the Vietnamese Presidential Unit Citation? I think not. He appears to have a Vietnamese Presidential Unit Citation but, NOT a Vietnam Service medal.
Yeah, I think it is safe to call Shenanigans on this “General”
Since we are on the topic of medals. Can one receive the Overseas ribbon and the Iraqi Campaign medal in the same tour? Becuase it is on my ERB that I have both but wanted to see if that sounded right.
While he is with out a doubt a fraud, AR 670-1 states (also stated in the first comment) that General Officers are not bound to this regulation. It is however, an utter disgrace for him to wear this uniform is such a f****d up capacity. If he is indeed for real his CSM needs to receive a very thorough wall-to-wall counseling session and right quick. Also General or not, no one is able to wear tabs, ribbons, medals they did not earn. My 2 cents
Squidgrunt – actually AR670-1 says the reg does not apply to “generals of the Army”, Chief of Staff of the Army, or former Chiefs of Staff of the Army. I would read “generals of the Army” to mean five-star general officers – the other generals ae specific assignments.
Oh yeah, this guy’s a fraud.
Yeah, I like how this yabbo has his Army Service Ribbon above his Vietnam Service Medal, though he “managed” to have the other three correct. It also looks like he’s sporting some Marine awards in the second row Combat Action, and Good Conduct (4th award) which would further complicate his path to be a flag officer. Also one would have to think if he has a Silver Star, he would have a CIB instead of an EIB.
Stand corrected with the CIB, couldn’t see it well the pics.
Also, this is the FIRST ‘general officer’ I’ve ever seen wear their marksmanship badges. Even from infantry units.
Bangle is bangle, but you’d think he’d have braids on b4 wearing marksmanship badges. When do you think was the last time he actually QUALIFIED on them? 1994?
Wolf
If he is a Gulf War Vet as evidenced by the Saudi and Kuwait KLMs, why isn’t he wearing the SWA Campaign medal w/ campaign stars? Since when do Officers wear marksmanship badges? They are optional, but I have never seen it.
If he served in the Marine Corps at sometime in his career; he forgot how to wear his CAR(Combat Action Ribbon)since blue is the senior color not red. Not saying he didn’t, since I served in the Air Force and then the Corps, but always made sure of the proper wearing of my Marine and Air Force ribbons.
As a former aide-de-camp (adc), I can tell you that general officers typically have two sets of eyes look at their uniforms, the enlisted aide and his adc. If anything his schizzle was straighter than anyone’s, down to the last milimeter.
Pretty interesting that there is no ARCOM or AAM that I can see?? Anyway, this guy is a total fraud. I know that after the Adm. Boorda suicide, there is not a GO who would be caught dead looking like that. Where is the ROTC battalion’s leadership?
GOMO at AKO is your friend. (General Officer Management Office). It has all the resumes of ALL active and retired General Officers. There is a MG Baxter, but judging by his resume’ and this “gentleman’s” assorted fruit salad…I would say they are not one in the same. That MG Leo Baxter spent quite a bit of time in Field Artillery and no time in the Special Forces that I can discern. My verdict…POSER!
1SG B (Friend of TSO’s from ‘Stan)
Jonn wrote: Roger, ISG. This guy hands out JSOC coins with the name C. E. Baxter. We’re having trouble pinning down his actual name and address, as you might imagine.
Googled “Major General Baxter”, “MGEN Baxter”, looked at various Army blogs, official US Army Website, SOCOM haunts. Not a mention; Google any given Major General you know and you’ll get news articles, speeches, command announcements, congressional record entries. Need more info to narrow uncertainty, but combined with the photo evidence of perfidy, not good.
1SG B?
Congrats bud.
Course, first and foremost you were always my wingman.
Imposter….plain and simple. Don’t see any awards still wrapped in plastic like I have on a few others. Your call, Lilyea.
A quick google search shows there is indeed a MG Baxter, USA (Ret.). He seems to have served honorably and entered into business.
This apparently ain’t him.
I hate frauds.
[…] over to This Ain’t Hell and read the evidence for yourselves. For you Army guys in the crowd, let’s play […]
I may be way off base here, but isn’t that a Ranger TAB on the right shoulder? My understanding was that the right shoulder was for the units you were involved in combat with, and the left shoulder was for various schools, achievements, etc… The Ranger Tab is for the school, the Scroll is for the unit?
Tie him to the tree of woe………..
What an Asshat Fraud Poseur
Sent the photo and link to one of my Nam Plt LTs (now Ret SF LT Col), and this was his response.
“Oh God, where to start? As soon as the picture loaded I knew he was a FAKE. Even generals are not authorized to wear skill qualification tabs (Ranger and Special Forces) on their right shoulder…they are worn only on the left shoulder (only). His fake unit citations are not right…they are not in order of precedence and I can’t think of a unit since WWII to be awarded 3 PUC while an individual would have been assigned. And he should also be wearing the VN Cross of Galantry (missing) Also, he has no campaign stars on his VN SVC Medal. etc., etc.
I hope that he is prosecuted under the stolen valor act and put in jail. He is such a phony…IMHO.”
So if we know where the picture was taken, we know the last name of the fool and his daughter/granddaughter/wife or whatever she is…
Is anyone going to contact the ROTC unit in reference and do something about this, or just comment about it on this blog?
Jonn wrote: Believe me, I’m working on it, but it all takes time. We’ve already established who he isn’t, now we have to figure out who he is. And I’m not planning on handing this over to an ROTC department – more likely a prosecutor’s office.
Unless this is some out take from a “soon to be released” movie, this impersonation should carry a hefty fine, no?
I recall having shot expert on just about anything that launched projectiles, but never wore a marksmanship badge after pinning on the LT bars. Heck I even chocked up enough wheel time in Korea to get a drivers badge (we were short handed at the time and thus LTs didn’t rate drivers). But of course the Captains board would have counted that negatively on my ORB photo.
I get it, the Wendys Ranger, Jesse MacBeth is this “general’s” aide!!!
Where’s his POS ribbon? This guy in so effin messed up it makes you wonder if he escaped the mental ward or is on furlough from the Dhimmicrat Libtard’s “Obama Volunteers”.
You ever see those idiots who run either Latin American banana republics or any of a dozen African countries, who order all their stuff from Discount Dougie’s House O’ Military Bling ? Amin, Mugabe, various other idiots who would sometimes dress up for a parade with everything except the shoulder braid from a New York Pimp Hotel?
Well… MY string of ears TRUMPS his chest full of pawn shop hardware. Yeah, a little more smelly, but what the heck. Class!
I sent a link to the folks at Stolen Valor this morning.
Time to take care of someone dishonoring the uniform.
Definitely a fraud. Best guess is he has been telling stories for so long that he has started to believe his own bs and the fish he’s caught keep getting bigger. The young lady in the picture is probably a relative (granddaughter) who has no idea that he is a fake.
Separately, glad I was Navy and didn’t have to worry about right shoulder patches and left shoulder badges or whatever. No wonder the goofy bastard got confused. 🙂
Wait one! As it is Thursday, my weekly vault lock will open and I will be able to take out the albums of photos from various operations that have never been discussed publicly and look to see if I remember his face. I think I do. There was this one operation in the Ma, short for Panama for you that have never taken part in an invasion of another country so that you could arrest a pre-approved coke trader, where a friend of mine worked with this guy. He real name is Bartholomew B. Taint (the middle B. is for Bluetick) and he is quite the master of disguises. During the Ma OP, he was nearly single-handedly and in near real-time responsible for ensuring that Noriega could not get to the market and buy PimpleBGon, which is Spanish for ProActiv, in order to disguise himself. (This was known as Operation Zit). He is a specialist in diesel repair, dessert preparation and of course sniping, although for the latter he did much of the qual process over the internet. In this photo, he is actually dressed down since Pres Bush the elder retired him as a Ten Star. This is what you get when you add the four on each shoulder he wears overtly, and the two he has attached to the handle of the Special Epic PPK he keeps near his butt, covertly. Stories about this guy abound. He once created a sling out of 4 boot bands and a piece of grass he kept secreted behind his top lip in case he was ever captured and needed something he could create a tune with and write music, to combat boredom. With that sling, he quickly adopted a good loop sling position and was hitting enemy soldiers at over 1500 meters with uncanny accuracy, and this while he was proofing a large snowboard type halo air runner beneath an even larger experimental weather zepellin. I would not push this too hard. Some of you may not be able to discern the details with your naked eye, but using my special… Read more »
As someone who is not in the military, but who has family that serves, I have a question. If you guys were at an ROTC event and ran into this guy (or someone like him) would you confront him?
Yeah, Generals typically wear a “General’s Belt” to show their right to change the uniform, but I think that’s in 670-1 also!
Regarding 670-1 and Generals not having to follow it – Read it carefully – it says that “Generals of the Army” are not bound by it, meaning 5 stars…. I think it exempts the CSA as well.
Where are these pictures from! I just need the link to page.
I’ve been out a long time, but I seem to remember that it’s at least a Federal offense to wear the uniform if you’re not entitled.
Even if they don’t want to go after him under the Stolen Valor Act, they should get him for “impersonating an officer”.
How do these morons think they can get away with stuff like this?
He’s also wearing a Master Army Aviator badge and doesn’t have a single Air Medal, but he’s got a DFC. Riiiiiiight.
There’s also an earlier pic of this tool floating around, taken outdoors. In it, he was sporting *enlisted* brass.
Can you post or link it?
Also, note that the (apparent) JROTC cadet is wearing Airborne Wings and nothing else. Her torches on her collar indicate that she is still in High School, impossible to have attended Jump School already.
Also this bodaggits CIB is placed over his ribbons. Notice his wreath dips down in front of his Silver Star. Cripes.
And how many Master Parachutist in the SPECOPS Community would not have a pair of Foreign Jump Wings
Might be just me, but it looks like hes wearing stay-bright(spelling might be off) medals with regular uniform buttons. I remember in order to wear one you had to wear both. In other words, to wear the stay bright medals you had to change the buttons to stay-bright as well. Dude is a fake, the Sf & ranger tabs were for gos sake the biggest give away. The girl too stood out to me that she was high school rotc but wears air borne wings. Guess it runs in the family! FAKES!
to lodestonejames:
yes, I wear the uniform (correctly and legally)and I’d call him out. First I’d see if I could find who has the authority to arrest his sorry a** and then I’d schmooze to get his contact info and a picture or two. I’d make sure he gets what he deserves.
FAKE! on his uniform there are also USMC decorations, as Combat Action ribbon and Good Conduct medal. And where’s the star on National Defense Service Medal (if he was in combat in vietnam and gulf wars it must to be a star, to denote the second medal issued for the second tour). but the vietnam citations shouldn’t to go before the presidential unit citation? too things to say. GENERAL FAKE!
Is there a place to report phony wear of the Ranger Tab? I think I know someone in violation and would like to report that up.
And FOUR Presidential Unit Citations, huh? Impressive. He must have always been in the right place at the right time.
[…] most recent appears to be a Major General Baxter. This Ain't Hell has the full scoop, but here is one of the images of Baxter. Check out This Ain't […]
To Mech Ariborne: I noticed the jump wings on that cadet too, and was puzzled until I saw the patch on her left shoulder. It belongs to the ROTC, not the JROTC; and I believe the ROTC offers the option to go to airborne training during the summer.
Even if is really a GO, only F’-ed up Air Force medical people do the pregnant-while-male look in service dress. “Aw, sir, when’s it due?” undermines one’s impact. (And, he’s supposed to be a hard-core Army snake-eatin’ Rambo dude, too. An SF guy, AC or RC, would never go out of the house like than unless he was retired and didn’t give a rat’s ass– but, if so, why take the trouble of dressing up?)
As a retired Army Aviator, I do not believe he earned Master Aviator Wings while being Special Forces. It take years, sometimes decades to earn Master Wings. You have to be on flight status, in a flight slot, for 15 years to earn those wings. AND you have to have 2000 flight hours. Most Aviation branch commissioned officers get to fly about 110 hours per year. Plus, if he flew in Viet Nam, he would have many Air Medals as they gave those away like candy back then. The Distinguished Flying Cross is mentioned, but I don’t see it. Just the Silver and Bronze Stars. He could have all that SF stuff AND be a Master Aviator. I call BS too.
I see that it’s been over a year for this story. I hope this douchebag was caught.
Yea, I am a smp CDT on my 3rd year and we wear the torches as well. Also, CDTs are given the opportunity to go to schools over the summer.
As a decorated hero, I am disgusted by this poser!
My awards include:
-Medal of Honda
-Disorderly Conduct Medal (w/ Bronze “V” for vagrancy)
-Purple Spleen
-Community Service Medal
-National Defense Service Medal (for watching the Gulf War on TV)
Seriously…
People like this need what we referred to in the Air Force as “Blast Fence Counseling”.